One of the benefits most travelers would agree they enjoy is the exposure to new places, new experiences and new ideas. These might be found in the most mundane of places, in situations where one might least expect to be confronted with the chance to alter one’s perspective. Such was the case last week when I walked into a McDonald’s restaurant in Times Square in New York City. Somewhere in the back of my brain I had stored the information that New York had passed a law requiring fast food restaurants to post calorie counts and nutritional information. Indeed, later digging revealed that after a couple of years and some dickering in court, fast food restaurants (defined as chains which had more than 15 outlets nationwide) last July began to display calorie counts of their offerings for their patrons. This was in an effort by Mayor Bloomberg and city health officials to combat the steep rise in obesity rates in the city population (a ban on artificial trans fats in restaurant food had already gone into effect). Although I had been in restaurants at home that offered posters or pamphlets or tray liners (with very small print) presenting nutritional information, it was pretty easy to ignore them and those rather dismaying numbers. It’s a whole lot more difficult to dismiss them when they’re slapped right up there on the menu board one orders from! Last  Tuesday my husband and I strolled through Times Square, headed back to our hotel after a show. We decided we could do with a bit of dessert but didn’t want to stop in at a sit-down restaurant. The golden arches beckoned, and a McFlurry sounded mighty good, so we got in line behind a number of other folks who seemed similarly inclined for a little late-night treat. Our wait provided ample time to study the menu board, and that was when we were confronted with the awful truth that our choice meant adding another 540 to 620 calories to our already generous intake for the day. “Hmmmm . . . ” I thought, “I don’t think I really need that kind of sustenance, even with all the walking I’ve done.” Suddenly that 150-calorie soft cone seemed like the ideal answer to my only slightly hungry self, and after conferring with Harry, it seemed he had come to the same conclusion for his half of the order. I’ve heard plenty of people complain about government interfering with our lives and trying to impose standards of health on adults who are perfectly able to make informed decisions for themselves. I agree that one shouldn’t or can’t legislate some entity’s definition of healthy choices, but my experience that night was that, when confronted with the cold, hard facts, I at least had the tools at my disposal to make that informed choice for myself — and at least at that one point in time, my head prevailed over my stomach! Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader